Originally Posted by mumbojumbo

I am a fast-key person but from previous experience I recommend NOT having a laptop. There are recent studies that suggest that using a laptop to write notes can undermined critical thinking during lecture. There are profs that discourages laptop-use *cough*Biology profs*coughs*. And there are others that encourage it like multimedia. This really depends on the type of person and the course you're taking notes from.

Yeah, I also find that writing notes helps understand things faster than typing notes. But I got through first year by just typing all my notes. When it came down to studying I wrote down anything I didn't understand because for one, it helps me to remember and two, I have everything I don't understand in one nice pile. So I can spend more time learning those notes instead of constantly flipping through the book or my main notes to the parts I don't understand.

Originally Posted by jhan523

Oh right, I should probably say that I opted to write notes on top of the PDF notes the teacher supplied instead of printing off the pages because for Chemistry there were A LOT of pages to print and I wanted to save money and paper.

That could work to. I actually like having it in front me rather than stare at a screen. Having a laser printer makes things easier. Save needless money on ink buy using toner... printing multiple pages per page and double sided printing... saves some money and paper.

Like I said. Depends what works for you.

To sum it up, basically the only class you need(ed) a laptop for last year was 1P03.. if you went, LOL. That was a miserable class, lectures sometimes had <10 kids lol.

Anyways, most courses have notes you can print before hand. 1p03 required us to take our own notes.. which was annoying since first term he refused to post up the slides.. 2nd term he kinda did.

I took my laptop to classes like 1E03, 1D03 (physics) and found it beyond useless, since the prof does examples on the board.

Best place for a laptop i found was the 1P03 tutorials that take place 2nd term

--To sum it up, no, a laptop is not required in class

Ya you wont really need a laptop in any of the lectures for engineering courses. Only time I found it was really needed was when I'm meeting up with a group to work on a project but other than that it was more of a distraction. It may also be useful for working on Maple (Math software) or Solid Edge (1C03 software) assignments but you can find both programs available in computer labs or Thode library easily.

I really find bringing laptops to lectures to be sorta pointless. I either get distracted and just chat online or get all OCD with the errors I make when I'm typing and I find myself always hitting backspace and retyping, consuming more time >.< And I don't know if it's just me but the click-ity sound the keys make really annoy me.

Plus, practically all the eng courses are math based and those are better written down on paper than typed. You may find a laptop to be helpful during 1D04 tutorials and lectures, however. That way, you can go through the codes yourself as the TA or prof is explaining it during class. They MIGHT be helpful for 1P03 but seriously, no one really takes notes in that class. You'll be too busy trying to listen to him talk instead of falling asleep. He posts lectures online anyways.

I would recommend owning a laptop, but not necessarily bringing it to class.

I tried using my laptop in first year to type my notes, and I ended up not ever looking at them again (BAD) and I also found them difficult to study from.

I prefer bringing my clipboard to class and writing my notes. It's much easier to write difficult-to-type symbols/formulas/charts etc, as well as forcing you to organize your notes into binders/duotangs/etc.

Finally, I often only bring my clipboard to campus (unless I have other things planned on campus that day). Bringing my laptop would mean bringing a bag with me, which I would rather not do.

For university life however, owning a laptop is preferrable to owning a desktop due to portability. I personally am a gamer, and while I crave having a desktop, I've been able to play most of the new PC games on my laptop essentially up until this year (GTA IV is just too much for my computer :(). If you're into gaming though, you'll need to spend upwards of $2000+ on your laptop (for a 4-year computer life) since you can't upgrade anything on it other than your RAM.

Good luck this year.

thanks a lot guys....ur responses really helped...

To anyone that really sucks at typing, by which I mean you're really slow, you might want to consider changing to or trying the Dvorak keyboard layout.

The Qwerty layout we have now only exists because it forced you to space out letters while typing to prevent keys from sticking together on typewriters. The Dvorak layout was developed in the 30's (optimized in the 70s) after the sticking problem was resolved, and is designed to be the most ergonomic and efficient layout, making it much easier to learn. All computers have it built in.

I'm trying to learn it now for fun since I'm kind of a slow typer. :p

I'm stuck with qwerty mainly because I've been using it since grade 5 or even earlier

(the private school I went for gr 5-8 to forced us to use Mavis Beacon at least twice a week, and in high school I was allowed laptops)

Mavis Beacon helps. You could always go find Mario Teaches Typing or something to make it more interesting.